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All posts for the month May, 2007

There are 16-inch mosquitoes in Indiana, 1000-pound hogs in the South, and you still can’t call a dildo a dildo in Texas. Amazing.As far as I know, however, there’s no law against calling a Texas legislator a dildo. Besides expressing their fears that, if legal, their wives would prefer mechanical devices to their husbands, the Lone Star lawmakers have proclaimed that the new vaccine against a virus that causes cervical cancer should NOT be required. They believe it is more important to prevent girls from thinking about sex than to protect them from cancer.

On the positive side, there’s a new car called the Phoenix (though it’s not made in Phoenix) that’s all-electric, and, though it’s not as fast as a Tesla, it’s only $45,000, performs like a normal economy car, and has a battery that should last for 27 years of daily recharging. They’ll be using them for taxicabs in San Jose.The price is a little high, but that should come down before long. Cars like these are going to make life easier for all of us, and eventually cheaper as well.

Naturally, the authorities cited the Texas Penal Code. If you plan to visit Texas, remember that the magic number is 6. If you carry 5 or fewer sex toys, you can’t be charged with intent to promote devices that may lead to gratification. Still, you can’t be too careful. If you gratify yourself, don’t buy yourself anything expensive, lest you be accused of doing it for money. And of course, don’t leave any dollar bills in your pocket when you wash your pants. That’s money laundering.

In an unrelated story, a Texas woman charged with bank fraud was described as a ‘Former Stripper’.

We invent the gods we think we need to justify the behavior we think we want.Regardless of the teachings of the current religion,its god will be redefined, not by theologians but by secular leaders and their followers. Religious leaders go along. The few who don’t are ignored. Some people worry about handguns; others worry about nuclear bombs. But the most dangerous of all are those who manipulate the gods.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~‘How should I know? I’m a paleontologist, not a foreign secretary!’–from Lost Horizon, 1937~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Some people criticize those who save things. They call us pack rats. I am proud to accept that title. It is those who compulsively discard useful things only to buy new ones that have the problem. They are the product of our economic system, with its drive to make and sell things whether they are needed or not.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Of course I give a shit. Did you ever try to SELL one?

— ~~~Captain RatIt’s a friendly universe…Let’s make it a peaceful world.~~~~~~~~~~~~My website:Cosmic Cabdrivers’ Guide to the UniverseHTTP://WWW.COSMICRAT.COM360 Blog: http://360.yahoo.com/captainrat23MSN Blog: http://cosmicrat.spaces.live.com/~~~~~~~~~~~~Thought for the day:Don’t relax! It’s only your tension that’s holding you together.

Just in case anyone had the impression that Microsoft is a friendly company that just wants to make the world better, remember that it is a company that will be satisfied with nothing less than total monopoly. It does not want to compete with other software companies– it wants to destroy them.

Its latest ploy is to claim "patents" on various aspects of an operating system and then state that anyone producing an operating system that does things in a similar way is "violating" its patents.

The entire idea of patents on software is absurd to begin with, but MS would like to own and control every icon, mouse cursor, and program with the word "office" in it. The competition it is trying to obliterate is not another greedy company– it is the concept of Open Source, and free software, embodied in Linux and BSD Unix, among other operating systems.

Microsoft has tried every dirty trick it can think of. Its monopolistic tactics have been exposed both in the US and Europe. Absolute greed is absolutely evil, and all the philanthrophy that Bill Gates’ foundations may demonstrate does not excuse its business tactics.

Sometimes I like to browse blogs in other languages, and, if they look interesting, let Firefox’s translator add-on reveal their meaning.

As you might guess, computerized translation comes out a little awkward sometimes, so the human mind, mine in particular, must rephrase the result. Every language "sees" things a little differently. For example, a phrase in Chinese that means "to masturbate" also means "to console oneself". That implies a refreshingly healthy attitude.

I happened upon a blog in French, and when I translated it, found that it expressed some relevant thoughts better than I had conceived them in English:

WORDS THAT IGNITE

It is necessary to pay great attention to the words which we employ and which we listen to. Because there are words which prevent us from thinking; words which, as soon as they are held up, have the curious effect to consume the intelligence, prevent us from looking at something inside us and the complexity of what surrounds us – because we live, in the middle of often indecipherable things, of a chaos of incommensurable shades…However, these words, instead of helping us to put a little clearness in what we are, our personal existences, our families, our companies, close our eyes.One hears the words without realizing it. They fill our minds with a pretty brilliance of explanation: “national pride”, “right of the people”, “freedom”, “equality”, “cultural exception”, “terrorism”, etc… They are so beautiful, though they plug our thinking. They are believed salutary, but they are terrible. They are believed the best ways to express ourselves, but they are the worst. Even the word “love” is a standard under which one makes atrocities.In fact the words HANDLE and do not explain anything. Words, to take up the idea of Rosa Montero, do nothing but sharpen the axe of the torturer and pile up the wood of the bûchers. Words transform the reason into straw and throw fire there. Vis-a-vis the sparks flamers, it is necessary to think, think, continue to think and never not to cease thinking.–Myriam Chirousse

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I tried to edit the English translation to clarify, and I apologize to the author if I didn’t get it quite right. She was not, of course, saying that words are bad, but that, too often we use words as labels for complex thoughts and feelings and ideas, and once we apply the labels we stop thinking.

When we use words in speech and thought that are merely shortcuts for real thought, we end up with shortcut emotional reactions. We open ourselves to manipulation by those who are willing to twist those words to twist our reactions and behavior.

Time and again throughout history, people, though meaning to do good, have allowed themselves to be used for the selfish ends of a few and as a result created major death and destruction.

As Myriam Chirousse said, we need to think.

I would like to add that it is not just the educated, the intellectual who can and must think. Every human being has a brain and can learn to think. It is not an idle endeavor– it is an inoculation against manipulation.

–cosmic rat

“It is necessary to be wandering, to cross the ideas as one crosses the cities and the streets.” (F. Picabia)

— ~~~Captain RatIt’s a friendly universe…Let’s make it a peaceful world.~~~~~~~~~~~~My website:Cosmic Cabdrivers’ Guide to the UniverseHTTP://WWW.COSMICRAT.COM360 Blog: http://360.yahoo.com/captainrat23MSN Blog: http://cosmicrat.spaces.live.com/~~~~~~~~~~~~Thought for the day:It would seem that evil retreats when forcibly confronted. — Yarnek of Excalbia, "The Savage Curtain", stardate 5906.5

Sometimes science makes amazing new breakthroughs. Other times, after years of research, it discovers we were doing something right all along. Sometimes it’s a combination of both.

Studies of medical marijuana have found that the best, most accurate way to administer it is by inhaling, which of course is traditionally done by smoking it. Some opponents have objected that ‘smoking isn’t good for you’ (which is entirely irrelevant for terminal patients), so a device has been invented that vaporizes the ingredients in marijuana without actually burning it. You get the benefits without actual smoke.

So the last conceivable medical objection to the approval of medical marijuana has been laid to rest. The opponents are left only with arguments like ‘God wants you to feel pain’.

I wonder if the vaporizing device could be used with tobacco as well. I suspect you wouldn’t get the same enjoyable flavor that way, but it might be useful in environments where authoritarians have deprived us of our freedom to smoke.

It is interesting how many Americans are willing to restrict liberty as long as they think it only applies to other people.

— ~~~Captain RatIt’s a friendly universe…Let’s make it a peaceful world.~~~~~~~~~~~~My website:Cosmic Cabdrivers’ Guide to the UniverseHTTP://WWW.COSMICRAT.COM360 Blog: http://360.yahoo.com/captainrat23MSN Blog: http://cosmicrat.spaces.live.com/~~~~~~~~~~~~Thought for the day:No man is useless who has a friend, and if we are loved we are indispensable. — Robert Louis Stevenson